Ocular motor screening

Positional testing

In positional testing, your lab technician will place you in various body positions while recording your eye movements.

Responses may point to vestibular abnormalities.

Posturography testing

In posturography testing, you will stand on a computer-controlled platform that moves and look at a visual scene that also moves.

Your responses can indicate how well the inner ear is working.

Rotational testing

In rotational testing, you will sit in a gently rotating chair while a computer records your eye movements. Because rotation is a natural physiological stimulus to the inner ear, the results can provide an indication of how the central nervous system processes vestibular information.

In visual-vestibular interaction assessment — a test related to rotational testing — your lab tech will present you with a combination of visual and vestibular stimuli. This test provides information on how the brain processes visual and vestibular information.

Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials

Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) test a special portion of the inner ear called the saccule.

The saccule senses upward, downward, forward, and backward movements. It also senses whether you are upright.

During a VEMPs test, your vestibular lab tech will:

Have you listen to loud clicks in your ears.

Use small wires to record the electrical activity in your neck muscles. No electrical shocks are used.